Photo copyright National Geographic

Bigger, faster, more. Who wouldn’t want that when it comes to tomatoes?

Driven by catalog hype (I was very succeptible last January when all the seed and supply catalogs hit my mailbox), I decided to try some red plastic mulch on my tomatoes this year. Not only would it improve the performance of my ‘maters, it promised, but it would help me overcome the price my tomatoes pay for my lack of dedication to weeding, too. Why not experiment? I decided to order some in the name of science.

On Monday, I finally unrolled the package of red plastic mulch and immediately learned some important things:

First, put the mulch down before you plant tomatoes. If you forgot until after you’d planted your tomatoes (um, like me), it’s not too late. But it is a bit challenging to unroll the plastic, lay it over your tomatoes and cut holes for the seedlings. Add a lively breeze, and you have…a circus.

Second, if any of your neighbors drive by while you are wrestling with the twisting, blowing plastic, explain it away as art (I had to, since I spent a good half hour looking like the artist Christo).

Third, don’t forget that if you’re going to mulch with plastic, you need to do drip irrigation to get water to the plant. So, now I’ve got something else on my gardening “to-do” list.

I should have asked you if you’ve used red plastic mulch before, and how it worked, and what kind of advice you have for me (but it was January and, frankly, you just weren’t around much).

But for others who prefer to do their homework before jumping in, please hop into the discussion below and add your two cents.

If you’re curious about this stuff, there’s some evaluation of it here and a more professional assessment at the Center for Plasticulture at Penn State (who knew?).

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 5:44 am and is filed under Mulch, Tomatoes, Peppers + Eggplant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.